Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) Shares Sold by Procyon Advisors LLC

Procyon Advisors LLC lessened its holdings in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 2.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 6,529 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 149 shares during the quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC’s holdings in Celanese were worth $1,014,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. IFG Advisory LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Celanese by 80.6% during the fourth quarter. IFG Advisory LLC now owns 37,013 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $5,751,000 after purchasing an additional 16,515 shares during the period. Artemis Investment Management LLP increased its position in shares of Celanese by 30.9% in the fourth quarter. Artemis Investment Management LLP now owns 155,551 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $24,168,000 after buying an additional 36,701 shares in the last quarter. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. increased its position in shares of Celanese by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. now owns 111,696 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $17,354,000 after purchasing an additional 513 shares in the last quarter. CVA Family Office LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Celanese during the fourth quarter worth approximately $68,000. Finally, Raymond James & Associates increased its position in shares of Celanese by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 61,602 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $9,571,000 after purchasing an additional 1,333 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CE has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on Celanese from $150.00 to $176.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 9th. Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. lowered Celanese from a “buy” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $140.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. StockNews.com raised Celanese from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price target on Celanese from $168.00 to $165.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 26th. Finally, Alembic Global Advisors lowered Celanese from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $160.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Celanese currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $144.28.

Insider Transactions at Celanese

In other news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $156.85, for a total transaction of $313,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 76,429 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,987,888.65. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In related news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $156.85, for a total value of $313,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 76,429 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,987,888.65. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Thomas Francis Kelly purchased 1,400 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 14th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $156.69 per share, with a total value of $219,366.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the senior vice president now directly owns 57,023 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,934,933.87. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Celanese Stock Up 0.4 %

NYSE CE traded up $0.75 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $170.39. 28,599 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 707,425. The company has a 50 day moving average of $152.71 and a two-hundred day moving average of $139.60. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.63. The firm has a market cap of $18.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.48, a PEG ratio of 0.66 and a beta of 1.35. Celanese Co. has a 52-week low of $99.33 and a 52-week high of $171.38.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 20th. The basic materials company reported $2.24 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by ($0.05). Celanese had a return on equity of 14.61% and a net margin of 17.92%. The company had revenue of $2.57 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.59 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.44 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Celanese Co. will post 11.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 5th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 20th were given a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 16th. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio is presently 15.64%.

Celanese Profile

Celanese Corporation, a chemical and specialty materials company, manufactures and sells high performance engineered polymers in the United States and internationally. It operates through Engineered Materials and Acetyl Chain. The Engineered Materials segment develops, produces, and supplies specialty polymers for automotive and medical applications, as well as for use in industrial products and consumer electronics.